Generative AI promised to transform how we work, while Agentic AI is beginning to transform how businesses themselves are built. But what does that ultimately mean for governance?

In this week’s episode of Shaken Not Burned, Felicia Jackson talks to Ethan Ouyang, North America representative at DeepWisdom. Deep Wisdom is one of China’s leading artificial intelligence companies, specialising in automated machine learning and multi-agent AI systems to help businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, integrate AI into their operations. 

With the launch of 'vibe business' platform Atom AI, Felicia and Ethan talk about the rise of agentic AI and what happens when artificial intelligence moves beyond generating content to actively building, operating and scaling businesses.

Unlike traditional generative AI tools, agentic AI systems can take goals, execute tasks, adapt in real time and increasingly function as operational actors inside organisations. From launching products to running marketing campaigns and managing workflows, these systems are beginning to shift AI from a support tool to fundamental business infrastructure. This trend is dramatically raising the stakes in today's AI conversations. 

As AI systems move from producing outputs to taking actions, they are not simply improving productivity; they are beginning to reshape entrepreneurship, business formation and operational decision-making itself. Using DeepWisdom’s platform Atom, AI agents are increasingly able to research markets, design products, launch businesses, run marketing and optimise revenue – pushing AI beyond content generation into execution. 

But this rapid acceleration of capabilities raises deeper questions. As AI capability expands, governance, ownership, financial models and operational discipline are still evolving. What happens when businesses can be built faster than the systems designed to regulate them? Where does accountability sit when AI agents act on behalf of founders or organisations? And what risks emerge when speed outpaces governance?

This conversation explores:

•  The shift from generative AI to agentic AI 

•  How AI is transforming business creation and operational execution 

•  Human-in-the-loop decision-making and delegated authority 

•  Ownership, IP and evolving business model challenges 

•  Why governance structures may be lagging behind capability 

•  Sustainability, infrastructure, and the resource demands of AI at scale 

This conversation explores what happens when AI capability begins to redesign business faster than institutions, governance systems and operational models are prepared for. 

As the second episode in SNB’s AI arc, this conversation moves beyond implementation challenges into the growing reality of AI-enabled business transformation – revealing both extraordinary opportunity and emerging systemic risk.

Further reading:

• State of AI trust in 2026: Shifting to the agentic era McKinsey

• State of AI Report 2026 AI Technologies

• The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation and transformation McKinsey

• Want to understand the current state of AI? MIT Technology Review

• 7 career-making AI decisions for CIOs Dataiku

• Labor market impacts of AI: A new measure and early evidence Anthropic

• The Services Era and the Race to AI profitability TSIA

• China is winning one AI race, the US another - but either might pull ahead

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn, TikTok and Instagram – and why not spread the word with your friends and colleagues?